Senior Reporter
jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt
A sea bath, fast food and time with family. These were the plans of some of the former detainees held under Preventive Detention Orders (PDOs) as they were released yesterday following the end of the State of Emergency (SoE).
Speaking with Guardian Media outside the Eastern Correctional Rehabilitation Centre in Santa Rosa, Antonio Paul, 23, said his first order of business was a meal.
“I’m going to get something proper to eat, like Popeye’s or McDonald’s, some kind of thing like that, you know.”
Paul, who said he has convictions which may have prompted the authorities to come after him, plans to stay clear of the law.
He said his three months at the facility were unjust.
“That was unjust, but to me, if that is what the Government put in place, you know, you just hadda do it and done, you know, in that kind of way. If you, as a person, were not doing crime, your name would never be on the list to be held, you know what I mean.”
The Santa Cruz man said he and his friend were both arrested together and kept in separate prisons.
Asked what lesson he learned this time around, he said, “Hold up on crime and be far away from crime!”
While others have complained about the prison conditions, Paul said this time was not as bad as previous times he was jailed.
“Well, it’s a little cleaner than before, yeah. Less rats and rodents, you know? Less roaches, you know what I mean?”
Leron Mendoza, another former detainee, said the time spent in prison was unfair and detainees who were not charged should be compensated.
“We have plenty broken homes. Plenty people’s families suffered! Men were supposed to buy books for their children. Men didn’t get to buy books. Men didn’t get to do anything for their families. So, I just hope that the Government gets what they want, but I hope they can repay what’s coming to them.”
Asked what the first thing he plans on doing now that he is a free man, Mendoza said he plans to spend time with his family, particularly his three-year-old daughter.
“I’m going to get to my family because I have my daughter. My daughter is three years old and prison; this is the third time here, I miss my daughter’s birthday. So, it is like jail is taking away everything from me and my family.”
Speaking outside the Golden Grove Prison in Arouca, a former detainee, who came to collect another relative, said the conditions at the Women’s Prison were horrible.
She said she spent 53 days there, and that has prompted her to become more politically vocal.
“Yuh see the next election, red is my favourite colour,” she said, touching her red dress.
“I going out in the hot sun and rain. I looking for red shoes too.”
The woman, who did not want to be identified, said the first thing she did after being released on Tuesday was take a sea bath with blue soap and then burn the clothes she left prison in.
“When my relative comes out, we going and do the same thing with him.”
She added that while most detainees were treated equally horribly, a female police officer who was also detained was not.
The officer, she said, had her breakfast brought to her cell reminiscent of room service and was allowed outside of her cell while others were confined.
“Is them who need to be punished harder. That is why the place like this,” she said.
